User talk:JoePlay/mainpage
Oh my. I like this layout alot. The links are nice and tidy, the news column is out of the way but still accessible, and the featured article is still nice and spacious. Will we be putting in more pictures? I think it would definitely make it look much better! =D --Thebrowncloud 21:24, 7 July 2009 (UTC) An issue with pictures is... we'd like those to have links in them, and that can be counterproductive. However, I figure we could put image links on some other pages (eg category: characters could have pictures of all the main characters, each with a link, etc). PSH aka Kimera 757 (talk) 23:25, 7 July 2009 (UTC) I'll probably re-add three before the new page goes live, if there are no objections. First, the link to the help area under the welcome message (I figure there can't be too many reminders that such a thing exists.) Second, turning some of the header text into links ("news" to the news archive list and that sort of thing.) The last I'm waffling on. I like having the area because it displays the "new messages" notice. But I don't know if its worth the screen space for something that is otherwise superfluous. - Meco (talk) 04:50, 8 July 2009 (UTC) I like the welcomeUser area. If we could make it slightly smaller, perhaps.... Could we add a link to the forums on the main page, though? I feel like no one really knows they exist and will get far more attention if they are readily accessible right when the user arrives at the wiki. --Thebrowncloud 05:39, 8 July 2009 (UTC) And more discussion on "de-linking"; I just noticed the Mass Effect wiki does not have a link to featured articles on the main page (just the individual featured article), and wondered if that was also done for SEO reasons. PSH aka Kimera 757 (talk) 14:54, 12 July 2009 (UTC) False Ads I think those false ads were there for a reason (so we'd see how the left and right side of the pages would line up). PSH aka Kimera 757 (talk) 22:13, 10 July 2009 (UTC) :Yup. I was preparing to move the whole thing barring any further comments. - Meco (talk) 22:17, 10 July 2009 (UTC) ::It's probably read, but we probably need to change those links in the table of contents (to the most visited pages). PSH aka Kimera 757 (talk) 23:57, 10 July 2009 (UTC) This might make a good list for the table of contents: *StarCraft *'StarCraft II' *StarCraft II units *'Sarah Kerrigan' *Xel'naga *Hydralisk *Ultralisk *Battlecruiser *Marine *'Jim Raynor' *'Tychus Findlay' *Ghost *StarCraft: Ghost (Put the split here) *Infested terran *Marauder *Zealot *Thor *Zeratul *Archon *Carrier *Immortal *Samir Duran *Raven It isn't logically organized, but then, the one at the Mass Effect wiki doesn't seem to be either. Also, I wonder... for links such as battlecruiser, should they link to the StarCraft II section rather than the lore section? PSH aka Kimera 757 (talk) 00:09, 11 July 2009 (UTC) I like the way Meco split that up on the current main page draft. PSH aka Kimera 757 (talk) 01:02, 13 July 2009 (UTC) ...And now for something completely different Well not completely, but anyway... Psi, remember the part of AJ's critique of the wiki about it not looking like a typical SC fansite? (most notably the main article/content area being white) Although I don't agree with everything he said, I did agree with that point, which inspired me to design a skin that looks more like a SC fansite. BAM! That's my sandbox wiki where I design new skins, main pages, etc. So depending on how attached you guys are to the white content area, it may be a bit jolting to imagine the wiki with a dark skin, but I hope you'll agree that it's much more StarCraft-y looking. That's the main thing I was trying to accomplish. In fact, all the graphics I used came from the official SC2 fansite kit, although I did modify some of them. On a related note, going from a white to dark content area can require that things like infoboxes and templates have their colors edited to match the new dark skin, and I'd be glad to help you guys with that if you need me to. Just say so. Another thing to mention - for anyone who may not be familiar with the StarCraft franchise (such as someone young who wasn't old enough to play SC1 back in the day), I added a short description of it at the bottom of the left column. This can also help with SEO, so there's actually two reasons for its addition. But in the end, it's your wiki, so, as always, feel free to tweak the design after I implement it here (since my sandbox wiki is only editable by Wikia staff). So take that new skin for a test drive and let me know how you feel about using it here. Since I used some CSS (MediaWiki:Common.css) to get the section header graphics to work, I'll wait and let you guys respond, and then implement the new main page and skin at the same time. Actually, if you guys want, I can implement that main page on the test page here, and you can temporarily use that new skin here with an import code on your personal monaco.css page (which essentially overrides the current skin). Just let me know if you want to do that, and I'll tell you the import code. JoePlay (talk) 01:45, 11 July 2009 (UTC) We weren't attached to a white skin, or at least I wasn't; we used a white skin just because it's easier. With your help, yes we could move to a dark skin. I think we could import the new skin for this page now, actually, since it'll gives us a better idea of how things look every time we change something, and it won't interfere in figuring out the content area. I noticed the new skin still has those horizontal lines. I don't see any flicker on them, but it might be something worth checking out on other monitors. PSH aka Kimera 757 (talk) 01:55, 11 July 2009 (UTC) I can work with either. If we go with the black background it would be a good time to convert the templates to use CSS classes (I was planning to do that after the current round of replacements); that would make it easier to fiddle around with the look all at once. - Meco (talk) 13:25, 11 July 2009 (UTC) :OK cool. Today, I'll implement that new skin and the images I used on the main page (section headers and glowing image buttons). Like I mentioned before, if you guys need me to help with anything else to make everything look good with the new dark skin, just say the word. JoePlay (talk) 17:00, 13 July 2009 (UTC) Characters link There's a new characters page. I had intended to put this in the category: characters page, but it's just too big (partly because the StarCraft I characters often only have tiny portraits, and they just won't fit beside the much bigger SC II portraits). We can add that to the main page somewhere, maybe just in the table of contents; I would expect visitors probably search for "characters" a lot anyway. PSH aka Kimera 757 (talk) 03:21, 12 July 2009 (UTC) :Good work, Psi. That page looks great! JoePlay (talk) 16:56, 13 July 2009 (UTC)